READING （EAST/WEST） 閱讀 （東西)

Goals and Methods 目標和方法

Posted January 29, 2022

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Anything that does not accord with universal principles is difficult to propagate, and anything that does is easy to propagate. The universal principles of anarchist communism are shared in the consciousness of the people.
— Liu Shifu, excerpt from a Manifesto in People’s Voice [Chinese Anarchist Newspaper], 1914

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READING （EAST/WEST） 閱讀 （東西)

The Emptiness of Emptiness 空亦復空

Posted January 27, 2022

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Albert Einstein 
(1950)

A human being is a part of the whole called by us the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

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No dead language can produce a living literature.
—  Hu Shi (1934)

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‘ … Cessation … ‘. Photo: M. Cynog Evans 

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Chan Master Huang Po 

(9th Century):

Mind is the Buddha, while the cessation of conceptual thought is the Way.
[ … ]
Anything possessing ANY signs is illusory.

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bill bissett, the rivr uv yr dreems, acrylik on canvas, 2020
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READING （EAST/WEST） 閱讀 （東西)

The Emptiness of Emptiness 空亦復空

Posted January 10, 2022

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In nature there are no negations, no possible transfers of negative force. We can assert a negation, though nature can not.

– Ernest Fenollosa (c. 1908)

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“… ‘Product of Time’…”. Photo: M. Cynog-Evans.
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bill bissett

2022

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READING （EAST/WEST） 閱讀 （東西)

The Emptiness of Emptiness 空亦復空

Posted December 28, 2021

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No permanence, no impermanence;

No arrival, no departure;

No exterior, no interior;

No origination, no extinction.

 

Hui-neng (d. 713 CE), sixth Patriarch of Chan 

 

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The investigation of emptiness is the chief task of Buddhist wisdom.

 

— Edward Conze (1961)

 

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Everywhen

 

Mokurai

 

(2021 … + / – …)

 

 

 

     Human being is aesthetic.

 

     — Joseph Beuys

 

 

 

everything excepted

(assuming ‘no thought’ to be 

both ‘here and there’ … ‘distinctive’):

 

on some (still) pointless level 

… in (flat) self-contradiction …

an (entire) ‘other’ world

 

 

 

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Joseph Beuys, Handgranate, ca.1970. Oil on paper with string [in a cardboard box] in a wood box.

 

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Aesthetics is the human being in itself.

 

— Joseph Beuys (1980)

 

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The unwrought material, when divided and distributed, forms vessels.

 

— Lao Tzu (sixth century BCE)

 

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Whoever cannot seek the unforseen sees nothing, for the known way is an impasse.

— Heraclitus (c. 535-475 BCE)

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Preventing “Alien” Invasion

McGill Newsroom, 

2 December 2021 

The search of life beyond our world is an exciting venture that may yield an enormous discovery in the not-too-distant future.
… 

In the face of increasing space missions, including those intended to return samples to Earth, a new article led by a McGill University researcher advocates enhancing planetary biosecurity through collaborations between astrobiologists and invasion biologists.
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Space missions to Mars and other planets and moons carry risks of biological contamination – for both Earth and the planets targeted by space missions according to a recent article in Bioscience. The paper, argues that planetary biosecurity should be informed by the knowledge gained by invasion science. “The likelihood of a live extraterrestrial organism hitching a ride, being successfully transplanted to Earth and establishing a foothold here is thought to be quite small,” says Anthony Ricciardi of Invasion Ecology & Aquatic Ecosystems at McGill University. “But current biodiversity approaches must be enhanced to address these hazards as space missions increase in frequency and scale.”

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Edward Conze 

(1961)

The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom [1st century BCE] mentions the ‘emptiness of emptiness’, which is defined by saying that ‘the emptiness of all dharmas [phenomena] is empty of that emptiness’. If truth cannot be found in ‘it is’, or ‘it is not’, but in the middle between them, what is the use of any assertion or negation? How can one insist on anything at all, or claim to know anything definite? The destruction of all opinions also includes the opinion which proclaims the emptiness of everything.

…

When ‘emptiness’ is treated as a philosophical concept by untutored intellects which have no wisdom, it causes much bewilderment and remains barren of spiritual fruits. All that it is then good for is to produce futile assertions of the type ‘emptiness is not nothingness’, and so on. As soon, however, as the spiritual intention behind this doctrine is considered, everything becomes perfectly clear. The aim is to reveal the Infinite by removing that which obscures it. The finite, one-sided partial nature of affirmative propositions is rejected not in order then to be replaced with just another proposition (affirmative in effect, though negative in its grammatical form), but with an eye to transcending and eliminating all affirmation, which is but a hidden form of self-assertion. The Void is brought in not for its own sake, but as a method which leads to the penetration into true reality. It opens the way to a direct approach to the true nature of things (dharmāta) by removing all adherence to words, which always detract or abstract from reality instead of disclosing it. Emptiness is not a theory, but a ladder which reaches out into the infinite, and which should be climbed, not discussed. It is not taught to make a theory, but to get rid of theories all together. Its traditional use is to express wisdom’s negation of the world. All that it aims at is the complete emancipation from the world around us in all its aspects. As a severely practical concept it describes the attitude of non-assertion which alone can assure lasting peace. Thus it embodies an aspiration, not a view. Its only use is to help us to get rid of this world and of the ignorance that binds us to it. As a medicine, it is of use only as long as we are ill, but not when we are well again.

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Mazu Daoyi
(d. 788 CE)

Buddhas are capable of authoritative personhood (ren). Having realized kind wisdom and the excellent nature of opportunities and dangers, you can break through the net of doubts snaring all sentient beings. Departure from “is” and “is not” and other such bondages….leaping over quantity and calculation, you will be without obstruction in whatever you do. When your situation and its pattern are penetrated [your actions] are like the sky giving rise to clouds; suddenly they exist, and then they don’t. Not leaving behind any obstructing traces, they are like phrases written on water.

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” … ‘Gone altogether Beyond’ …”. Image (digital original): M. Cynog-Evans.●

The complex of existence exceeds mentation’s compass. Emptiness of purpose does not imply contempt for society, rather assumes that each person whether he knows it or not is noble, is able to experience gifts with generosity, that society is best anarchic.

— John Cage (1960)
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READING （EAST/WEST） 閱讀 （東西)

Orientation and Significance 導向與意義

Posted December 23, 2021

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Good and evil are the same.
— Heraclitus (active about 500 BCE)
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Heraclitus living in the old acoustic world before Greek literacy said, “You can’t step in the same river twice.” And today in the electric world we say, “You can’t step in the same river ” period.

— Marshall McLuhan (1973) 
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One of the passions which now absorb me is an insatiable curiosity; having recognized that evil has triumphed and that I cannot prevent it, I am determined to study its development as objectively as possible.
— Mikhail Bakunin … letter to Élisée Reclus (1875)

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My personal freedom, confined by the liberty of all, extends to infinity.

— Mikhail Bakukin (1871)
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Searching nature I taste self but at one tankard, that being my own.

— Gerard Manley Hopkins (1883)

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Stan Brakhage, Chinese Series [detail], 2003. 2 minutes, 18 seconds; 35 mm film, black and white and colour. 
Curatorial Record:
Chinese Series was the final film made by avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage (1933-2003)—the last testament of a prolific 50 years in which he completed over 350 works of lyrical first-person cinema. Studying hypnagogic vision and what he termed “moving visual thinking,” Brakhage’s studies in light and motion often respond to cultural considerations as well as personal visual experience. In Chinese Series the abstract shapes that he hand-scratched with his fingernails into the softened emulsion of the film reflect his decades-long study of Chinese art and poetry, and are powerfully suggestive not only of Chinese calligraphic characters, but of mysterious hinted-at landscapes, shafts of light, or foliage.

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Wyndham Lewis
(1927)
The unfolding of the fan is the spatial image. The closing of it is the time image. They are respectively, extension and intensity.

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All realization, of a high intensity, must be analogical: we cannot twist entirely round upon ourselves: we cannot experience reality “front on,” we must make use of the external to experience what is ultimate—having no “outside” or “inside”.

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Michael Snow, Authorization, 1969. Photograph—instant silver prints (Polaroid 47) and adhesive tape on mirror (in metal frame). 56.6 x 44.4 x 1.4 cm. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. 
Curatorial record:
This work was presented by the artist as part of his solo exhibition at the 35th Venice Biennale—1970.
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Marshall McLuhan (1960):
Media are the parameters of all enterprises, whether private or collective. They impose, they are the assumptions. Mostly, therefore, they are subliminal just because they are constitutive and pervasive. But to a number-sodden age, it may be more effective to say “Media are the parameters” rather than that “the medium is the message.”
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READING （EAST/WEST） 閱讀 （東西)

Orientation and Significance 導向與意義

Posted December 15, 2021

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JAPAN TODAYDecember 13, 2021
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金 chosen as kanji character best representing 2021

Kyoto — The kanji character 金 (kin), meaning gold or money, has been chosen as the character best representing the events in Japan in 2021. The character symbolized Japan’s record haul of 27 gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, a Kyoto-based organization that promotes kanji, has conducted the survey nationwide every year since 1995.

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Hachiman in the Guise of a Buddhist Priest – Japan, 11th century. Polychrome wood. 48.9 x 41 x 32 cm (19 1/4 x 16 1/8 x 12 5/8 in.). Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
Curatorial Record:
The Shinto god Hachiman has enjoyed special prominence throughout Japanese history. He was originally a local military guardian protecting an agricultural and mining community in Usa. Since his legendary birthplace in Japan was near south China, a possible source of military threats, Japanese rulers came to rely upon him for protection against that danger. In this role, Hachiman became known as the Shinto god of war.
The Kimbell Museum’s figure of Hachiman reflects a complex theological transformation that occurred when the Japanese sought to reconcile Buddhism, a foreign religion, with native Shinto beliefs. Shinto gods could symbolically enter the Buddhist priesthood, thereby acquiring a dual identity. In this image, Hachiman is dressed as a Buddhist priest. Seated in a meditative position, wearing a monk’s robe, his head shaven, and carrying a jewel in his left hand, he resembles representations of the bodhisattva Kshitigarbha (in Japanese, Jizo), reflecting the fact that Shinto images shared the same stylistic features as Buddhist sculptures of the period. 
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JAPAN TODAYDecember 14, 2021 

China marks 84th anniversary of Nanking Massacre 

BEIJING — China on Monday marked the 84th Anniversary of the Nanking Massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians and disarmed soldiers were killed by Japanese troops in and around the former Chinese capital.

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China frequently criticizes Japan for not showing sufficient contrition for the brutality of its expansionist campaign that swept across Asia during the first half of the 20th century. The ruling party has often allowed anti-Japanese sentiment to build domestically to shore up its legacy as a defendant of China’s sovereignty and national dignity.
In 1937 and throughout World War ll, the Communists were based at Yan’an in northern China, far from the front lines, while most of the fighting and dying was done by Chiang Kaishek’s Nationalist forces backed by the U.S. 
A 1946 international tribunal concluded at least 200,000 civilians were killed by Japanese troops in a weekslong frenzy of murder, rape, looting and arson after Nanking – China’s capital at the time – fell on December 13, 1937, after bitter street fighting in Shanghai. The city’s name is now spelled Nanjing under the pinyin romanization system.
Some right-wing Japanese politicians have downplayed the death toll or denied outright that the Nanking atrocity happened.
Increasingly, it is China that has raised alarms in Asia with its more assertive military and diplomatic posture, particularly over territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas, along with its growing military harassment of Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy it claims as its own territory.

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READING （EAST/WEST） 閱讀 （東西)

Orientation and Significance 導向與意義

Posted December 8, 2021

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Japan’s military, among the world’s strongest, looks to build 

Mari Yamaguchi, JAPAN TODAY, December 7, 2021 
Eniwa, Hokkaido — Dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers fired explosives and machine guns in drills Monday on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, a main stronghold for a nation that is perhaps the world’s least-known military powerhouse.
. . . 
The exercises illuminate a fascinating and easy-to-miss point. Japan, despite an officially pacifist constitution written when memories of its WWII rampage were still fresh–and painful–boasts a military that puts all but a few nations to shame.
And, with a host of threats lurking in Northeast Asia, its hawkish leaders are eager for more.
As it is, tens of billions of dollars each year have built an arsenal of nearly 1,000 warplanes and dozens of destroyers and submarines. Japan’s forces rival those of Britain and France, and show no signs of slowing-down in a pursuit of the best equipment and weapons money can buy.

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‘xtra’

bill bissett

2021

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writtn with joy masuhara

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”  … TATA … [There Are Thousands Of  Alternatives] …”  Photo: M. Cynog-Evans.
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READING （EAST/WEST） 閱讀 （東西)

Orientation and Significance 導向與意義

Posted December 2, 2021

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READING （EAST/WEST） 閱讀 （東西)

Orientation and Significance 導向與意義

Posted November 26, 2021

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Yinyuan Longqi (Japan, 17th century), “The Way of the patriarchs spans a thousand years.” Hanging scroll – ink on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Emily Carr, Music in the Trees – oil on paper on board (circa 1935).
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Years – little years –  what are they? As insignificant as the fact that reversing the figure nine turns it into the letter P.

— Emily Carr (1941)

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READING （EAST/WEST） 閱讀 （東西)

Orientation and Significance 導向與意義

Posted November 20, 2021

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